ANNOUNCEMENT FROM TADLOW MUSIC SEPT 10th 2007 (well yes it is a few hours early...but busy day of recording jingles for Russia radio station tomorrow!!)

RODRIGO RIDES AGAIN!

James Fitzpatrick, record producer and orchestral contractor for Tadlow Music Ltd, has announced today final plans for the first ever complete recording of the classic epic score by MIKLOS ROZSA for EL CID.

This long cherished project has had a bit of a stop/start progress but now the project is proceeding with some haste. In fact, as of today, some 70 minutes of material is already “in the can”. This was recorded over the course of 4 sessions in September with the 94-piece City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Nic Raine. Major cues recorded so far include “Overture”, “Prelude/Main Title”, “Entry of the Nobles”, “Coronation”, “Fight for Calahorra”, “The Road to Asturias/13 Knights”, “The Expedition”, “Wedding Night”,“The Barn – Love Scene”, “El Cid March”, “Battle of Valencia” “The Death of El Cid” and the “The Legend and Finale”.

The rest of the score, some 70 minutes more, will be recorded in Spring of 2008 when final reconstruction and orchestration from Rozsa’s original sketches is completed by Nic Raine.

After the orchestral sessions there will be some brass recording (to be confirmed) with the Cornets of the Central Band of the RAF as well as choir sessions with Crouch End Festival Chorus and organ recording in Peterborough Cathedral.

Once the recording is completely finished the plan…as yet to be confirmed…is to release a Limited Edition 3 Disc Set. Discs 1 and 2 to be the Stereo masters, while disc 3 will be DVD formatted and feature the entire score in a full 5.1 cinema surround sound. Because of the scale of this project no recording date is as yet set but Autumn 2008 seems most likely.

The team recording EL CID are the same team who recorded earlier this year the successful and highly-acclaimed THE PRIVATE LIFE OF SHERLOCK HOLMES: Conductor Nic Raine, Sound Engineer Jan Holzner (recording at Smecky Studios in 24bit, 96Kzh High Definition Sound), Mixing Engineer: Gareth Williams, The City of Prague Philharmonic with Concert Master Lucie Svehlova, and Producer (as well as expert tea and coffee maker) James Fitzpatrick. The whole recording is being totally funded by James Fitzpatrick…who has a very understanding wife!!!

This is absolutely wonderful Mr. Fitzpatrick, thank you so much. I am in Castille y Leon right now so this is perfect timing for me to get this exciting update. This is something to look forward to indeed ! I intend to go out on the town in Leon tonight and have a little vino to celebrate.

Once the recording is completely finished the plan…as yet to be confirmed…is to release a Limited Edition 3 Disc Set. Discs 1 and 2 to be the Stereo masters, while disc 3 will be DVD formatted and feature the entire score in a full 5.1 cinema surround sound. Because of the scale of this project no recording date is as yet set but Autumn 2008 seems most likely.

If you're going to do it in 5.1, why not use hybrid SACD, and it can be on 2 discs? Especially as "DVD-formatted" has worse than CD quality.

After the orchestral sessions there will be some brass recording (to be confirmed) with the Cornets of the Central Band of the RAF as well as choir sessions with Crouch End Festival Chorus and organ recording in Peterborough Cathedral.

Ya know, so far, I've been far more impressed by your Prague-based choir than the Crouch Enders. The Crouch Enders seem to have no subtility. They just yell the louder parts, and the softer parts never come out soft. Your Prague choir has so far come off as more nuanced in its singing. Any chance of having you record the choir sessions in Czechland?

Sounds great, but it also sound like it's going to be a very expensive release. Any reason of why an European re-recording has to be limited?

What difference does it make where it's recorded? All the tadlows have been limited but they've been worth it. And even with the weak dollar, James has still released them over here at $20, instead of $30 which si what it would be if you converted the amount they were selling in the UK for. I suspect this will be more expensive than the others since it's two discs, but I'd be very surprised if it was double the price of the single-discers. Guess we'll see.

Since there have already been quite a few threads about it, I guess this piece of news was kinda expected.

Still, though, I'm glad to have it confirmed once and for all that a new rerecording of this excellent score is on its way. I sold off my old "blue cover" Sony recording a few months ago, and was thinking of picking up the Sedares version instead. Now I'm unsure what to do. The old Sony release had several flaws, but had more or less perfect running time/track presentation. The Sedares version expands on that a bit, but has good sound and better performance. Now this one comes along, which may even be better in the performance and sound departments. The whole super-complete and chronological aspect is a big drawback, though.

I'll wait untill the release is here, listen to some sound clips and make the final evaluations then.

After the orchestral sessions there will be some brass recording (to be confirmed) with the Cornets of the Central Band of the RAF as well as choir sessions with Crouch End Festival Chorus and organ recording in Peterborough Cathedral.

Ya know, so far, I've been far more impressed by your Prague-based choir than the Crouch Enders. The Crouch Enders seem to have no subtility. They just yell the louder parts, and the softer parts never come out soft. Your Prague choir has so far come off as more nuanced in its singing. Any chance of having you record the choir sessions in Czechland?

FYI,

You've been pissing on quite bit of Mr. Fitzpatrick's recordings for years on another forum

such as "where an excellent Czech chorus actually sings and substitutes the usual loud yelling of the Crouch Enders."

So any comments by you should be taken with more then a gain of salt IMHO.

It didn't say DVD-A, it said "DVD formatted". That implies a normal DVD to me...

It seems odd to make it three discs when it could be two, and sound better at the same time.

But then again, it seems everyone is so damn ignorant about the actual truth of the various formats, which is why they never took off like they should have.

Well, you can assume it's going to be a DVD-Video release. I can assume it's going to be a DVD-A release with DVD-Video 'compatibility.' I guess we'll have to wait until Tadlow clarifies the situation. A pure DVD-Video release doesn't make a lot of sense. Why go through the effort of doing a 5.1 master only to compress it down to a 400mb Dolby Digital file on a disc capable of holding gigabytes of data?

And how is SACD going to "sound better?" Half of the tracks are laid down as 96/24 already, not DSD, so DVD-A seems to be a good fit for this recording.

You've been pissing on quite bit of Mr. Fitzpatrick's recordings for years on another forum

such as "where an excellent Czech chorus actually sings and substitutes the usual loud yelling of the Crouch Enders."

So any comments by you should be taken with more then a gain of salt IMHO.

Ford A. Thaxton

Grain of salt? Look who's talking. IMHO fo cuorse, Dinko A. Fanboy

And in case your highness is interested, what I said about previous Prague recordings still stands. Sloppy rythms, obnoxious brass, steely strings, screeching woodwinds, etc... In one word: unlistenable.

Newer recordings, particularly those conduced by James Fitzpatrick himself, tend to be on a level the original recordings were not. In two words: world class.

And that quote you pulled out perfectly fits with what I said above. Crouch Enders yell, Praguers sing. So find something else to prove your point.

And how is SACD going to "sound better?" Half of the tracks are laid down as 96/24 already, not DSD, so DVD-A seems to be a good fit for this recording.

Either way, even if it's dumbed down to Dolby Digital standards on a regular DVD, more people would be able to enjoy it in surround that way than on SACD. DVDA would be preferable to just DVD, but we'll see.

My personal preferred option would be 2 hybrid SACDs, but I'm pretty sure those would be more expensive to produce than 2CDs + 1DVD, and again, more people would be able to enjoy the CD+DVD combo than the hybrid SACDs.

This must be the most notable announcement of any re-recording of a film score that has ever been issued.

Only a re-recording of Spartacus could match this for significance.

Those arguing over the merits of one chorus over another would do better to devote their energies to complaining about the Russian accents singing the English song on The Sea Hawk recording – about as convincing as Germans singing The Star Spangled Banner.

You've been pissing on quite bit of Mr. Fitzpatrick's recordings for years on another forum

such as "where an excellent Czech chorus actually sings and substitutes the usual loud yelling of the Crouch Enders."

So any comments by you should be taken with more then a gain of salt IMHO.

Ford A. Thaxton

Grain of salt? Look who's talking. IMHO fo cuorse, Dinko A. Fanboy]

You are incorrect,

In my experience, you are a CLUELESS FANBOY..

You've proven that to me time and again to me.

And in case your highness is interested, what I said about previous Prague recordings still stands. Sloppy rythms, obnoxious brass, steely strings, screeching woodwinds, etc... In one word: unlistenable.

In the view of one rather bitter fanboy, the odd thing is that when some of folks who write this stuff listen to the same recordings, they tend to not share your views, but god forbid that they disagree with DINKO.

[ Newer recordings, particularly those conduced by James Fitzpatrick himself, tend to be on a level the original recordings were not. In two words: world class.

Based on my exiperence,they sound the same if say Nic Raine were conducting the same piece, who is a very good conductor in his own right.

And that quote you pulled out perfectly fits with what I said above. Crouch Enders yell, Praguers sing. So find something else to prove your point.

I suspect that if you to be told that the recording was by the CROUCH END choir and in fact it was by the Czech chorus, you'd just piss on it, because you just couldn't tell the differnce, except by the credit on the album.